There are both beginners and intermediate Scratch courses available and parents often ask us, “Which course should I enrol my child? What’s the go with the beginners vs intermediate Scratch courses?” Let’s go through the concepts that are covered in the beginners and the intermediate Scratch courses.

Beginners Scratch courses

This is a great place for beginners to start. There are 4 beginners Scratch courses. Over these 4 courses the following fundamental concepts of coding are covered:

  • Commands
  • Sequencing
  • Branching (decision making)
  • Iteration (loops)
  • Maths (addition, subtraction, equality)
  • Variables
  • XY coordinates
  • Positive and negative numbers
  • Collision detection
  • Animations
  • Simple Boolean logic
  • Testing and debugging

 

Art and Animation

Create your own interactive digital art and animations. Get your sprites walking and talking. Start exploring XY coordinates. It’s a great place to start for beginner coders. Learn about commands and simple sequencing.

 

Space and Exploration

Explore simple game design with Space and Exploration. Program player sprites, collectibles and enemy sprites. Automate and animate sprites by using loops and branching.

 

Sports and Games

Create competitive computer games. Learn to use simple Boolean logic and collision detection to trigger “you win” and “game over” screens. Use variables to store numbers, e.g. game score.

 

Fantasy and Stories

Coding is a creative activity. Exercise your creativity and build fantasy worlds and interactive stories. Imagine, design and build it. Consolidate your knowledge of XY coordinates, and positive and negative numbers so that you can manipulate objects in 2D space.

Intermediate Scratch courses

Student must be confident in the skills outlined in the beginners course. There are 4 Intermediate Scratch courses. Over these 4 courses the following concepts of coding are covered:

  • Branching: if blocks vs if-else blocks
  • Iteration: forever vs repeat vs repeat until
  • Maths: angles, geometry, random number generation, multiplication, division, greater than, less than
  • Joining strings (data type)
  • User input box
  • Player dashboards
  • Controlling objects in 2D space: XY coordinates
  • Designing AI algorithms
  • More complex Boolean logic
  • Gravity effects and trajectory physics
  • Multi-player, multi-level game design
  • Testing and debugging
  • Iterative design

 

Science and Future

Design games, animations and interactive artwork in the context of science and futuristic worlds. Add gravity effects to your digital projects. Build greater player interactivity by using the player input box and joining strings and variables.  Extend on your knowledge of branching and iteration with more complex applications. Understand the nuance between the various tools available.

 

Imaginary worlds and creatures

Create your own imaginary world and creatures. Design the environment and the characters that live in it. Animate your imaginary world. Learn how to use Boolean logic in more complex algorithms to automate characters. Invite friends and family to explore these digital worlds you have created.

 

Game Design

Learn the building blocks of game design. Design your game world, characters, enemies, helpers, collectibles and player dashboard. Create challenges and various levels. Learn how to design computer AI algorithms to allow your player to compete against the computer. Find out what makes a game exciting and engaging. Year 5 level maths required.

 

The Classics

We love classic arcade games. I bet you do too! Learn to build the classics such as Pong, Tank Wars, Snake, Space Invaders, Breakout and more. Explore complex concepts such as trajectory physics. These games require a minimum of Year 5 level maths.

 

If you’re interested to find out more